Stony Brook to join with Organ and Tissue Donor Registry

Stony Brook joins “Workplace Partnership” to find organ donors

Stony Brook University is participating in the “Workplace Partnership for Life”, a national initiative intended to encourage organ and tissue donations through worksite awareness and education.

Spearheading the joint effort is Scott Smolka, a professor in the Computer Science Department. Since his successful heart transplant in 2003, Smolka has dedicated himself to raising awareness of what he calls a severe shortage of organs and tissues for transplantation.

“There are approximately 84,000 people in the same state that I was, waiting for an organ transplant, waiting to resume their lives,” Smolka said.

Tens of thousands more await tissue donations for lifesaving transplants, as in the case of burn and cancer patients. Without these surgeries, they will die or remain disabled.

You can help by registering to become an organ donor. Detailed literature about the New York Organ Donor Network will be distributed on campus in October. For more information about the national “Workplace Partnership for Life” initiative, visit www.organdonor.gov.